Why Mathew Knowles Brought Home Tina Lawson Even Though He Grew Up Dating White Women

Mathew Knowles opened up about growing up and his experience with racism in the South. According to BET, he revealed he dated White women and thought when he met ex-wife, Tina Lawson she was White. In his new book, “Racism: From the Eyes of a Child,” he talked about how his mother had a hard time being Black.

Knowles said, “When I was growing up, my mother used to say, ‘Don’t ever bring no nappy-head Black girl to my house.’ In the Deep South in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the shade of your Blackness was considered important. So I, unfortunately, grew up hearing that message.” This made him date women of different races.

In his book he also opens up about going to therapy and how it helped him face a lot of his past. Knowles said, “I have a chapter in the book that talks about eroticized rage. I talk about going to therapy and sharing — one day I had a breakthrough — that I used to date mainly white women or very high-complexion Black women that looked white. I actually thought when I met Tina, my former wife, that she was white. Later, I found out that she wasn’t, and she was actually very much in-tune with her Blackness.”